Christmas with the Patricks
by CrazyHayniac
Summary: With Thanksgiving having passed, it's time for Dayton and Byron to begin decorating their house for Christmas. However, not everything goes according to plan when their son is involved in the decorating.


Dayton had never really been one for the Black Friday shopping. One year during college, she and her mom had gone just to see what all the fuss was about. It had been a memorable experience, but for all the wrong reasons, and the two had decided not to go Black Friday shopping ever again. Besides, there were deals online that were easier to get on Cyber Monday or in the weeks around Thanksgiving. The decision to avoid shopping on Black Friday made it the perfect day to stay at home and decorate for Christmas; the decision was also made even easier that year due to the fact that Dayton was 5 months pregnant with twins.

For the past four Christmases, Dayton and Byron had had an artificial tree rather than a real one. The first Christmas after the two were married, they had gone with a real tree. However, their cat, Nutmeg, had thought the real tree was something to climb in which resulted in the two waking up to find the tree fallen over with a mess of water, lights, and ornaments on the floor. The following Christmas when their son Brayden was 6 months old and the cat was still mischievous, they hoped an artificial tree would work better. Nutmeg had still been suspicious of the tree but had never tried to climb in it or made it fall over again.

Although Brayden had never tried to mess with the tree, Dayton and Byron had decided to wait until their kids were older to get a real tree again. They hoped that by then Nutmeg would have calmed down to the point of not trying to climb the tree anymore and the needles of the tree would be less likely to result in injury when the kids could understand that the needles would hurt them.

In avoidance of Black Friday, Dayton and Byron again planned to decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. The year before when he was 2 ½, Brayden had helped put some of the ornaments that couldn't be broken on the lower branches. Now that he was 3 ½, it was even easier for him to help, and he was more responsible too.

"Can I help with the tree?" Brayden asked as Byron brought the tree into the living room where it would be for the following month.

"Not yet," Byron informed him as he lay the Christmas tree's box down on the floor. "Putting the tree together is going to be a little to hard for you to be able to do yet. Mommy and I will do that. After we get the lights on, you can help put the decorations on the tree.

"Maybe you can help me get the stockings and some other decorations up while Daddy puts the tree together," Dayton suggested.

"Okay." Brayden smiled as he ran to help get more of the Christmas decorations from storage in the basement.

"Careful, Bray!" Dayton called. "And wait for me before you go downstairs."

"The baby gate is back up," Byron spoke.

"Okay. Good. Thank you for getting that back up even though you had the tree."

"Of course," Byron replied with a smile as Dayton started after Brayden. She found that Brayden was patiently waiting at the baby gate for Dayton to join him and open the gate so they could head down to the basement.

Brayden smiled up at Dayton and held his hand out for her to take once she had been able to open the gate. Once in the basement, Dayton handed Brayden the star tree topper in its box to carry upstairs and took a small box with the stockings and some other fabrics that would be used to decorate the house herself.

They set the boxes they had down on one of the couches away from Byron so he had room to continue putting the tree together. Although it wasn't needed yet, Brayden opened the box he had carried and took the star out to carefully set it down on the couch so it would be ready for when they needed to put it on the top of the tree.

While Brayden had been opening the box with the star, Dayton had opened the one she brought. "There's only 3 stockings," Brayden observed. "Will the babies have ones?" he asked, referring to his twin little siblings who were due in 4 months.

"Not this year. We'll make sure we get stockings for them next year, but not this year," Dayton explained.

"Oh, okay," Brayden nodded. After a moment's consideration, he continued, "What about Nutmeg? Does she get a stocking?"

"She doesn't have one right now. Maybe when we go shopping next week, we'll have to find her one," Dayton spoke.

"Okay," Brayden agreed.

Since their house didn't have a fireplace, Dayton and Byron had _Command_ hooks on the wall in their living room to put the stockings up. Standing on the couch, Dayton was able to loop the stockings onto their hooks.

"It's starting to look like Christmas," Brayden commented. "Do you need help with the tree, Daddy?"

"Maybe," Byron admitted. "But I don't think you'll be able to help me with the tree until we're trying to spread the branches out so they're not all together like they are now. Maybe you can play with a couple of your toys while Mommy and I get the tree put the rest of the way together."

"Okay," Brayden agreed. He went to his room and got a few toys, playing with them on the other side of the living room by Nutmeg to make sure he and the cat didn't get in his parents' way.

Once Byron and Dayton had the tree up, they began the process of untangling the lights. "We've said every year we need to make sure to put them away so they don't get tangled," Dayton laughed as she and Byron tried to untangle the colored lights before they began putting them on the tree.

"And somehow we never do," Byron finished. After a few more minutes, they were able to get the lights untangled and ready to be put on the tree. To get the lights around the tree, Dayton and Byron stood on opposite sides of it and passed the lights back and forth between one another. While Brayden still sat with his toys, rather than playing with them, he watched his parents put the lights on the tree while he waited for his turn to help decorate.

"Time for the star?" Brayden asked, getting up from the couch once all the lights were up on the tree.

"It is," Byron replied. "If you get the star, I'll pick you up so you can put it on the top of the tree."

"Okay," Brayden agreed. Dayton helped him unwrap the star from the paper that was around it to protect it and fill the box. As Byron held him up to reach the top of the tree, Brayden couldn't help but smile to himself. He loved that he was able to help decorate the tree with his parents and that they both always made time to play with him. "Perfect," he spoke after the star was situated at the top of the tree.

"You're right, it is perfect," Dayton added. "Adding ornaments will make it even more perfect. Why don't we get the ornaments from the basement while Daddy put the stockings up?"

Brayden nodded his agreement and held Dayton's hand as they made their way downstairs. A few minutes later, the Christmas music was turned up as the three began to decorate the tree.

Once all the decorations were up on the tree, the family stood back to admire their handiwork. "So pretty," Brayden commented as they looked at the tree. He began walking towards the tree and Byron and Dayton assumed that he was going to adjust an ornament he had put up. Instead, he reached for one that was a little too high and ended up tripping over his own feet and falling into the tree resulting in it falling against the wall.

Byron quickly pulled Brayden away from the tree and put him in Dayton's arms before setting the tree back upright while Dayton began comforting Brayden.

"I—I broke the tree," Brayden stammered, tears began to stream from his eyes.

"No, no, no. It's okay," Dayton comforted, gently and comfortingly rubbing her hand across his back. "You didn't break the tree. See, Daddy fixed it." Dayton motioned towards the tree where Byron had already set it back up.

Brayden looked up and wiped a few tears from his eyes. "All better?" he questioned.

"Yeah, all better," Byron confirmed. "None of the ornaments are broken."

"Okay," Brayden spoke before he paused. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to see the ornament."

"It's fine that you did," Dayton spoke. "But if you want a better look for one that you can't reach, let Daddy or I know and we can get it for you or pick you up to see it better, okay?"

"Okay," Brayden agreed, wiping the last of the tears from his eyes.

"Shall we get some lunch and watch some Christmas movies for the rest of the day?" Byron asked.

A smile broke out across Brayden's face with his tears now subsided. Dayton set him down so he could make his way to the kitchen, and the two followed him to help him retrieve everything for lunch. The remainder of the day was uneventful as they finished putting up the Christmas decorations and enjoyed watching movies together as a family.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read this whether you're reading it around Christmas or not. This is actually something I've had the idea of for a while from an OTP prompt somewhere and I started writing it before season 2 aired.

Even though Byron is not in season 2 and Dayton's love interest is leaning more towards Zane, I hope everyone is able to enjoy the one shot. I really liked the idea of them together and can't let it go despite Zane's presence in season 2.

Anyway, I'd love to know what you thought or how you think I can improve my writing. I appreciate constructive criticism because it helps me become a better writer.

Thanks again for reading,

-CrazyHayniac


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